PD Editor Susan Goldberg Responds - And Gets It Totally Wrong

Here are emails sent out by Cleveland Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg tonight, regarding my firing earlier today.

First:

We didn't bow to any political pressure. Had we known that he had contributed to the opponent of a person he was writing about, we wouldn't have hired him in the first place. Once we learned of the issue, we asked him not to write about the congressman he opposed. When he refused, we decided that we couldn't pay him any longer to blog for us. That said, he is of course welcome (along with every other blogger in the universe) to say whatever he wants about anyone he wants. But the standards are our's - not imposed on us by any outsiders. We, and everyone else, continue to wade into this, learning new things every step of the way.

This is nonsense. At least two one of the other bloggers involved in Wide Open have has contributed to candidates - for confirmation as to one see here. [NOTE: Dave says that he has never made political contributions, and the link must be to someone else with his name.] They She did not get fired.

I have contributed to other candidates, but only my contribution to LaTourette's opponent seems to be an issue.

In WHAT ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE did anyone at the PD think that a political blogger would not have contributed to political candidates?

Second:

i don't expect them to be unpartisan. we hired them because they have strong views. but i don't think that someone who is actively supporting a candidate with financial contributions can be using our platform (officially, because we are paying him) to slam the other candidate. That crosses a line for us....

WRONG. I have not written a single word about LaTourette at "Wide Open." Not one. I haven't written about him on my own blog since "Wide Open" started, either ... I simply have not had occasion to do that.

I have not been going out of my way to write about LaTourette, and I never "slammed him" on the Cleveland Plain Dealer site.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, I was fired because a powerful Congressman doesn't like what I have written about him in the past. The $100 contribution to his opponent was a convenient cover for that action.

When it came specifically to firing me, the PD first asked if I would promise never to write about LaTourette at Wide Open. Although I had not done so YET, I could not make that promise, not knowing what might occur in the future.

DuBail told me, by the way, that Susan Goldberg had told him to fire me two weeks before, and he had talked her out of it for the time being. That was before anyone asked for a promise not to write about LaTourette.

It was what I might write on Wide Open in the future, not what I had written so far, in cominbation with the $100 donation, that became the immediate excuse.